Julius F. Howell

Julius Franklin Howell (17 January 1846-19 June 1948) was a Confederate veteran and commander-in-chief of the United Confederate Veterans after the American Civil War.

Biography
Julius Franklin Howell was born in Virginia in 1846, and he enlisted in the Confederate States Army in 1862 after many of his classmates were killed at Williamsburg during the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War. Howell served in the 24th Virginia Cavalry, and he served as a courier until 1864, when his regiment was moved to the north of Richmond as Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant fought near Petersburg. Howell did not fight in any large battles, instead engaging in skirmishes during the seven months that his regiment fought. Howell took part in the cavalry charge against Union artillery and infantry at a clearing near the Darbytown Road, during which he was shot in the leg and spent two months on furlow. On 1 April 1865, Howell and his regiment (which had now lost much of its horses) was ordered to march to within a mile of Richmond, and his regiment was attached to Richard S. Ewell when Ewell marched to meet Lee's army around Petersburg. On 6 April 1865, he was captured at the Battle of Sailor's Creek in Amelia County, Virginia, one of 20,000 Confederate prisoners held in a Union POW camp at the end of the war. After the war, he became an educator, preserving the memories of the Confederate soldier and serving as Commander-in-Chief of the United Confederate Veterans for decades. In 1947, he gave a recorded account of his life to the Library of Congress, telling them about his wartime experiences. He died a year later at the age of 102.